Who failed Hazel Dell?

In light of the horrific event in Hazel Dell that took the life of 13-year old Alycia Nipp, it's time to ask the tough questions:

1. Why is Clark County's political leadership allowing Hazel Dell to fester economically?  Surrounded by affluence, Hazel Dell should be a thriving commercial core, but instead, it's where we dump society's rejects.  For some strange reason, political leadership has decided to focus on downtown Vancouver as the commercial core rather than pay attention to significant proportions of population in the greater Hazel Dell area.

2. Why does Clark County's Board of County Commissioners continue to devote 125% of their time to land use planning issues rather than social services?  

3. Why are we allowing Level 3 sex offenders to be homeless, just running around our community?  Why do we not have the correctional half-way houses, etc. to effectively monitor those most likely to re-offend?

4. Is Clark County governance in over their head when it comes to public safety issues?  Are they stretched too thin?  Would it be better to incorporate as a city and obtain urban services rather than wait for a county government more concerned with filing endless appeals of land use planning decisions?  

Yes, Tom Mielke, Marc Boldt and Steve Stuart, I'm asking YOU.  

I'll gladly pay increased taxes to prevent this from happening again.  Unfortunately we have a county commission majority elected on the "no new taxes" mantra that doesn't square with reality.

Neo-Prohibitionists on the march!

Yes, let's kill jobs and punish one of the few successful regional industries that actually do a value-add on home grown agricultural products:

Five Oregon state lawmakers want to impose a hefty tax on beer and have introduced a bill that brewers say would cripple them.

Four Portland legislators joined a Springfield senator to introduce Oregon House Bill 2461, which would impose a $49.61 tax on each barrel of beer produced by Oregon brewers.

Granted, the current tax of $2.60, unchanged in 32 years, is probably too low. But an 1800% increase is bad public policy.  This is the kind of stuff that makes industry lobbying groups way stronger, and it paints the Portland-area Democratic legislators who are co-sponsoring this as out of touch.  No one is proposing steep increases on barrels of wine produced in Oregon vineyards, I'm just sayin'.  

On our side of the river, Great Western Malting provides several specialty malts to area brewers, so the impact of this proposed hike is more than just Oregon.  So if this does end up passing, Washington State should grant immediate "refugee brewer status" with tax abatements for Oregon producers looking to relocate.  Give me your tired huddled brewers, yearning to produce the tastiest beer in the nation!

It would be a fun exercise to see who's funding these legislators' campaigns, as I could've sworn I saw a wagon hauled by Clydesdales throwing cash around in Salem.  Alas, Oregon's campaign contribution search engine is a pale shadow of Washington's vaunted Public Disclosure Commission reporting system.

There's no place like Rome

This story must be making Republicans' heads explode:

Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months.

Immigrants who are permanent residents, with documents commonly known as green cards, have long been eligible to enlist. But the new effort, for the first time since the Vietnam War, will open the armed forces to temporary immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, according to military officials familiar with the plan.

Empires have a long tradition of granting citizenship to those who fight its wars, so there's really no problem here, it's the way things are done.  

Offshoring work paid by taxpayer funds is one thing, but rewarding those who put on the uniform on the U.S. military is a completely different side of the coin.  For those in our latest round of imperial adventures who've risked life and limb as translators for our operational combat units, there has to be a path to citizenship.